Changing Lives by Sarah

Changing Lives by Sarah - February 2015 Scholarship Essay

Tim O'Brien is a veteran of the Vietnam war. He was drafted for this war in 1968. He explains the trials and triumphs of both his buddies and himself before, during, and after the war in a collection of short stories titled The Things They Carried. Most, but not nearly enough students are exposed to this book in high school.

Reading this collection enlightens the reader to the pain and frustrations of being in a war that they do not understand. The book jumps from story to story; telling one event from the war and in the next chapter, jumping to a story of the effect of this event on the life of one of the characters after the war. He does not follow the normal chronological order that most war stories do. He uses multiple jumpy, slightly sporadic plot lines, all strung together into stories that relate and flow, but not in chronological order. It introduces new ways of writing to high school readers.

O'Brien also destroys any trust readers have for authors in his stories. He will tell a story and at the end of the story, when the reader is distraught over the outcome of one of the characters, he states "That didn't happen" or "I made that up". This, naturally, frustrates the reader, which is the point. It exposes the reader to the frustration the soldiers drafted into the Vietnam war felt. Very few works of literature actually incorporate the reader, not only into the story, but into the emotions connected to the story.

This book is an experience all high school students should have. This book should be read multiple times by every person who desires to be an upstanding citizen in society. It makes a person really appreciate good literature. It changes lives.